Number Playdough Mats to Help Teach in a Fun Way
Inside: Get your free Number Playdough Mat Ice Cream Shop to help your child learn counting 1-10.
We love playing with Playdough and it is a great way to use sensory and tactile play to learn and have fun! We also love eating ice cream at our house, so I wanted to create a fun ice cream shop Playdough mat to help my son and daughter learn about numbers. These number Playdough mats are a super fun way to help your child learn about numbers and be able to incorporate pretend play with opening up their own ice cream shop!
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Number Playdough Mats
The number Playdough mats are a great way to help your child learn numbers 1-10. For this activity you will need some Playdough and to show your child how to make the different shapes. You can have them form the number with “logs or snakes” shapes with the Playdough. You can also have them work on spelling out the letters of the number too.
Then you can have them roll the Playdough into large “ball” shapes to form the ice cream on top of the ice cream cone. Lastly you can have them roll the Playdough into small “ball” shapes to place them in the 10 frame to work on counting up to the number as well.
They can have fun pretending to take ice cream orders and acting out a pretend play scene.
Get your Free Number Playdough Mats Here!
What skills can your child learn with these number Playdough mats?
Using the Ice Cream Number Playdough Mats your child can learn a variety of skills. Here are some skills that they can learn:
- Fine motor skills
- Tactile sensory play with the Playdough
- One to one correspondence
- Number identification
- Number recognition
- Reading number words
- Writing numbers 1-10
Materials Needed
- You will need a printer to print the Playdough mats
- laminator
- laminator pouches
- Playdough
- possibly clear sheet protectors
How to Use
- You can simply print them out and use as is, or if you want them to last longer for multiple uses then you can laminate them.
- Or you can place them into a clear sheet protector. This won't last as long as laminating though.
- Now provide your child with different Playdough color options and allow them to form the numbers and the ice cream shapes. You may need to model for them how to make the “log”, “snake”, or “ball” shapes.
Loose parts to add More Play Ideas
There are a lot of different loose parts you could add into the ice cream Playdough mats to expand the play! Here are some ideas:
- small erasers
- pipe cleaners
- pony beads for sprinkles
- Gems
- plastic knives
- small spoon to scoop the ice cream
- plastic Playdough scissors
- small rolling pin
My son and daughter loved making the ice cream cones. We even enjoyed eating some ice cream while we played together!
Check out tons of additional fun playdough activities and the benefits of playing with playdough here.
Different Ways to Use the Number Playdough Mats
Here are a few additional fun ways that you can use the ice cream mats:
- Drawing on the pages-kids can draw the numbers and ice cream shapes and decorate the ice cream scoops
- Tracing- Use markers to trace over the numbers and letters
- Finger tracing-kids can trace the numbers with their finger for extra practice
- Stickers- you could have the child use stickers to decorate the mats
- Counters or small erasers-you could use counters or small erasers to could the ice cream cones
Grab your Number Playdough mats here!